Highlighting Juneteenth
Floor Speech
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Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to once again highlight our newest Federal holiday, Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day.
For Americans who are not familiar with this day, it has been celebrated within the Black community for over 150 years. This was the day when the message finally reached Black Texans living in Galveston that slavery was over and that they were indeed free.
The Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862. Union General Gordon Granger arrived with over 2,000 troops to deliver this message to the former slaves on June 19, 1865, 3 years later.
The lesson that can be learned from this special day is twofold. For almost 3 years, Black Texans lived as slaves at a time when the price had already been paid for them to live free. As it was with Juneteenth 1865, it would be the Republican Party that delivered the message to my race: You are free.
In America, in the land of freedom, success is a personal choice. It is not easy, nor is it guaranteed. But if you choose to dream, work, sacrifice, and remain patient, you can, regardless of your skin color, live your American Dream.
The remarkable success of the late 1800s all-Black Greenwood community speaks to the tenacity, pride, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit of a race that rose in less than 50 years from slavery. Its destruction in 1921, within 12 hours, also highlights the vulnerability of the American Dream in the absence of the rule of law. Deep Greenwood, referred to as ``Little Africa'' and ``Black Wall Street,'' was the most wealthy and prosperous Black community in America in the early 1900s.
During the 1820s, several successful and prominent Black entrepreneurs were drawn to Oklahoma due to a nationwide economic depression and the discovery of oil. The local economy boomed, with Blacks in Tulsa representing all professional occupations, from day laborers, cooks, and shoe shiners to physicians, schoolteachers, and entrepreneurs.
Racism and the influence of Jim Crow laws made it so that Blacks could work in White areas but could not spend their money there. This led to the creation of Deep Greenwood.
With business dollars circulating only within their own community, many Blacks began to buy land and start their businesses. Black Wall Street became the center of the town, featuring restaurants, jewelry stores, hotels, theaters, places of worship, and three Black newspapers.
By the way, in the 1960s, when I was growing up, this describes my segregated community, a community of entrepreneurs where, across our country, 50 to 60 percent of Black Americans belonged to the middle class.
Over 600 business owners helped Black Wall Street become influential, including a funeral parlor, barbershops, dental and medical offices, schools, libraries, a hospital, insurance and loan companies, airline charter services, a bus service, international businesses, and nightclubs.
The Black community was thriving, and their collective success rivaled that of Tulsa. But in these times of racism and deep prejudices, the success of Black Wall Street created a tinderbox of tension.
On May 30, 1921, a 17-year-old White woman accused Dick Rowland, a Black shoe shiner, of criminally assaulting her when he accidentally stepped on her foot. She slapped him, and in response, he grabbed her arm to prevent her from hitting him.
Realizing his self-defense move might cause problems, he fled the scene. The next day, he was jailed. The Tulsa Tribune printed a story announcing that a ``negro would be lynched tonight.''
Three hours after the Tulsa Tribune released the story, hundreds of White men gathered at the Tulsa courthouse where Rowland was being held. Many Blacks who wanted to protect Rowland from being lynched rushed to the courthouse to defend him.
False rumors about the incident caused a struggle between White protestors and Blacks in front of the courthouse. Shots rang out, and 12 men were killed.
As the fighting continued, Tulsa Whites began an all-out assault on Deep Greenwood, including dropping firebombs from the air. Fire engulfed the entire Black district. Deep Greenwood burned all day on May 31. At the end of the attack, Black Wall Street was no longer standing.
In total, 300 people were murdered; 35 acres of commercial and residential property were destroyed; 1,400 homes and businesses were looted and burned; 10,000 people were left homeless; $1.8 million in damage, which in today's dollar amounts would be $27 million. It was estimated the total value lost would be valued at $200 million in today's dollars. Over 600 businesses were destroyed, and as is today, these businesses were the engine that powered the self-sufficient middle class.
By the time the police chief asked the National Guard to help quell the ``negro uprising,'' it was too late. The city was already destroyed. A grand jury held him responsible for dereliction of duty. He was removed from office, found guilty in the trial, but never served any time in jail.
I would like to introduce you to some of the Black leaders in Deep Greenwood, Oklahoma, the city of millionaires.
Dr. A.C. Jackson, a physician, transcended the color lines, servicing both Black and White patients. He was considered the most skilled Black surgeon in America, with a net worth of over $100,000, which, in 2019, would have a value of over a million dollars. Dr. Jackson was murdered during the massacre at age 40.
E.W. Woods was the first principal of the all-Black Booker T. Washington High School. Woods set the standard for high expectations at school.
John Stradford was the owner of a 45-room luxury hotel in Greenwood, the largest Black-owned-and-operated hotel in Oklahoma, and one of the few Black-owned hotels in the United States. He was the son of an escaped slave, and he came to Oklahoma in 1899 and was the wealthiest man on Black Wall Street.
Simon Berry owned a nickel-a-ride jitney service, a bus line, a boutique hotel, and a charter plane service.
John and Loula Williams owned a 1911 luxury Norwalk Touring. This couple launched multiple venues, a theater, a confectionary, a rooming house, and a garage.
Buck Colbert Franklin, an attorney in Deep Greenwood, was known for defending the survivors of the Greenwood massacre. He was the father of civil rights advocate and historian John Hope Franklin.
These successful Black leaders all faced the darkness of the 1921 massacre.
John Stradford's hotel laid in ruins after the burning of Deep Greenwood and was never rebuilt. Stradford was indicted for inciting a riot and fled Greenwood.
The Mt. Zion Baptist Church was just 40 days old and was destroyed. The cost to rebuild and furnish was $135,000.
During the riot, homes were looted and burned, and thousands of Black people were left homeless.
There were 88 indictments served against Blacks and Whites alike, but all charges were either dismissed or ignored.
The KKK used the massacre as a recruiting tool, stating that ``the riot was the best thing that ever happened to Tulsa'' and sold postcards in Tulsa's downtown streets to raise money.
Republican Representative Dyer from Missouri introduced a Federal antilynching bill, the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. Democrats in the Senate delayed the bill and eventually killed it. Between 1882 and 1968, nearly 200 antilynching bills were introduced in Congress, and seven U.S. Presidents between 1890 and 1952 also asked Congress to pass a Federal antilynching law. All efforts failed to pass due to the stalling tactics by the Democratic Congress and Senate.
The comparison of 1921 Tulsa and the 2020 summer can be summarized in these words: a lack of rule of law.
In 1921, what had taken nine decades to build in Greenwood was destroyed within a matter of 12 hours. Ninety-nine years later, following the murder of George Floyd, riots stretched throughout our country in predominantly Black urban cities. Over the summer of 2020, more than 1,500 businesses, residences, and government buildings were destroyed, along with the lives of 25 Americans.
Jeremiah Ellison, a councilman in Minnesota, where a police precinct house itself was set on fire, advised the mayor to leave the vandals alone. ``The focus of anger is the police and this building,'' he reasoned. ``If we let the crowd do its thing, we might spare the neighborhood.'' History will forever note how wrong he was.
In Portland, Oregon, the summer riots of 2020 have resulted in $23 million lost. Yet, the Portland mayor, Ted Wheeler, tweeted that Federal officers were bringing violence and life-threatening tactics to the city. ``The best thing they can do is stay inside their building or leave Portland altogether,'' he said.
In Kenosha, Wisconsin, over half the people arrested in the aftermath were from out of town. Property damage topped $50 million and put close to 40 businesses out of business.
Even in my own Salt Lake City, cop cars were burned. The Salt Lake City Council chairman declared that overturning and burning a police cruiser was a ``small sacrifice over physical clashes between officers and civilians.'' Meanwhile, 21 police officers were injured.
At the end of the summer riots of 2020, over 20 States witnessed violent riots, with insurance claims between $1 billion and $2 billion.
Once again, most tragically, 25 American citizens lost their lives, including a respected retired Black officer who was murdered in cold blood protecting the store of a friend.
In New York City, politicians passed no-bail laws, allowing criminals and rioters to return to the streets the very next night to loot and again attack New York City police.
In Portland, as the city is still reeling and businesses remained hostages to criminals, thousands of rioters' charges have been dropped.
We must learn several things from our history. Whether it be the destruction of 1921 Black Wall Street businesses or 2020 Black urban cities throughout our Nation, consistent is a pattern of failure of elected officials to uphold the rule of law. Instead of championing Black and minority business owners, many of these officials stood aside as these communities were destroyed. Consistent with the acts in 1921 and that of 2020 was the criminal predators' justification, always in the name of so-called racial justice.
From these two dark chapters, accountability must be a lesson learned. As we demand equal opportunity for all Americans for life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and property, we the people become more unified and free.
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